Protecting the environment for future generations is great idea. In fact it’s a notion so simple that you might wonder why it took a White House committee ten months, 52 public listening sessions and a 116-page document to express what any lover of nature knows by heart. Unveiled in February by President Obama, America’s Great […]
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How better science could help solve environmental justice problems
In the world of public health research and environmental monitoring, “cumulative impacts” are edging toward conventional wisdom–but at EPA headquarters, the phrase is just becoming hip. This week, the agency doled out $32 million dollars to study the health impacts of exposure to multiple pollutants at once. That’s on top of the $7 million granted […]
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Rising gas prices hurt poor most of all
Of course this issue isn’t that simple. Here in the interior West, especially in suburban and rural areas, we couldn’t ease up very much on our dependence on gasoline powered vehicles, no matter how much we wanted to.
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An atlas of equity
Portland, OR often receives credit for green leadership, but that doesn’t mean that the city is free from environmental risks. Like anywhere else, the commerce, industry and daily activities of millions of people in Portland’s metropolitan area combine to strain the environment; and, like in any city, Portland’s disparate neighborhoods don’t feel these strains evenly. […]
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U.N. human rights expert visits California tribe
Arron Sisk took the smoldering sunflower root and undulated it from Catarina de Albuquerque’s feet to the top of her head, its pungent smoke curling above her like a spectral crown. He then held it beneath her nose, and told her the root would clear her mind from bad thoughts, allow her to see and […]
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The price of “green” home improvement
Many Arizonans like to talk big about resenting federal intrusion and giveaways, but one recent giveaway appears to have been quite popular. While definitive statistics on installations in the Phoenix area are unavailable, an observer will certainly notice a good number of homes — especially in aging mid-century neighborhoods like mine — sporting efficient new […]
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Will the EJ legacy of Southwest coal be addressed?
I have been busy this year chasing my two young ones around the house trying to get giddy little happy people to take a few moments from their daily joy to drink some water, gulp vitamins and brush their teeth before bed so they can stay healthy. The need to play is often prioritized over […]
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Ethical metalsmiths
Around here, one sort of business seems to be surviving the Great Recession just fine: those “We Buy Gold!” places. Most seem to be sidelines of related outfits, such as independent jewelers and pawnshops, but I’ve also seen them cropping up in such surprising locations as tire repair shops and convenience stores. Another variant is […]
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From science to action in environmental justice
On the east side of Houston, Texas is the Ship Channel, a narrow vein that gapes into the bay just north of the Gulf of Mexico. Through this waterway, freighters carry Western oil to sea. The banks are tangled with refineries, docks, pipelines, and rails. Fuel tanks stack the shore like poker chips, and when […]
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The State of the Union and the environment
When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address tomorrow night he’ll likely focus much of his attention on the economy and jobs — and the lack of them in this country. It’s also expected that the President will further signal a centrist drift. It’s unlikely the President will spend much time discussing the […]
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Water use: something we Arizonans can control
It’s an understatement to say that we’ve had a pretty grim new year so far here in the Grand Canyon State. First, of course, was the horrifying shooting rampage in Tucson on January 8th. Plenty has been said already about the possible causes and implications of that tragic event, and plenty more hard things need […]
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Tribes: The Overlooked U.S. Climate Delegate
Editors Note: This piece is cross posted from Mother Earth Journal, where reporter Terri Hansen writes about indigenous people and the environment. The Cancun dust has settled, though I can’t shake the images of tourist luxury. As one of 10 Earth Journalism Network U.S. Climate Media Fellows I spent two weeks last December reporting the […]
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Putting the 40th Anniversary Blog to Bed
2011 marks 41 years that High Country News has been in existence. While another year is certainly noteworthy, especially in this age of disappearing print publications, it won’t carry the fanfare of the past year. This last year was anything but ordinary here at High Country News. To celebrate the organization’s 40th anniversary, subscribers hosted […]
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Tree equity
The Los Angeles community Sherman Oaks sounds like a place that should be verdant and laden with leafy trees. Not surprisingly, the students of Arbol University found that to be exactly true. Yet the students, who were using trigonometry and other tools to collect data about Los Angeles’s urban tree canopy, were shocked at the […]
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The age of loudness
“No age is louder than ours,” Ken McAlpine writes in his book, “Islands Apart.” “We have reached a crescendo of clamor, and it is both curse and comfort,” he continues. “Solitude, in our times, is rare and, for many, profoundly unnerving.” What might solitude offer those who never have a chance to experience it? Can […]
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Extracting the West
As another year begins, extractive industries continue to mine the West for opportunity, even when the economic activity they promise has little to do with the American West. Now it’s increasingly clear that battles that seem localized to the West have far-reaching impacts. The West has long been treated as a transitional zone, as if […]
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Not so simple living
What was your first exposure to ideas of environmental justice? Mine, I’m ashamed to say, was very low-key: I saw a bumper sticker. It was affixed to a co-worker’s car, back in the early 1980s, and it said, “Live Simply, That Others May Simply Live.” I was in college at the time, in a town […]
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Not in my backyard?
The New York Times reporter Kirk Johnson gave the NIMBY question some thought in a story and blog post this week profiling the political tug of war between anti-uranium milling NIMBYs in Telluride, Colo., and those who live in Naturita, Nucla and nearby towns around Colorado’s Paradox Valley. Many residents in those towns see the […]
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California’s tribal harvesting imbroglio
Frankie Myers’s tribe, the Yuroks, have gathered and harvested everything from mussels to seaweed on the Northern California coast since “the beginning of time,” as he puts it. The myriad coastal resources are of important cultural value to many Pacific tribes, and recent studies have shown that pre-contact hunter-gatherers were extremely adept at harvesting in […]
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A new standard for tribal and U.S. relations
WASHINGTON, D.C. — What’s my take away from the White House Tribal Nations Conference? Easy. This is an administration that actually believes the United States government must represent all of the people, including American Indians and Alaska Natives. Make no mistake: Everything is not perfect between Indian Country and the United States as we close […]